
NEWPORT NEWS — The 2025 D3baseball.com/NCBWA Preseason Top 25 was released on Tuesday with the Christopher Newport Captains slotted in at No. 11 in the national rankings. After concluding last season ranked No. 12 in the poll, the Captains will open the 2025 slate with the highest preseason billing since 2013.
Under the direction of head coach John Harvell in his 25th season, the Captains return the entire starting lineup from last year’s NCAA Super Regional squad. CNU posted an overall record of 29-12 and won the fourth NCAA Regional Championship in program history before being eliminated by eventual national champion Misericordia University.
Misericordia checks in at No. 4 in the preseason poll, collecting eight first-place votes. Ahead of the Cougars were preseason favorites, UW-Whitewater, with 11 first-place votes, Salve Regina at No. 2 with five first-place votes, and Endicott, earning the remaining first-place vote, at No. 3.
In addition to the Captains hauling in a spot at No. 11, the Coast-To-Coast Athletic Conference is also represented by No. 7 Salisbury in the Division III preseason poll. CNU will face the Sea Gulls on Saturday, April 5 and to close out the regular season on Saturday, April 26. On top of the home-and-home series with the Gulls, the Christopher Newport schedule is littered with teams that earned a spot in the preseason poll including: No. 5 Denison (Feb 21), No. 9 Lynchburg (Apr 9 and Apr 16), No. 15 Cortland (Feb 22), No. 16 Randolph-Macon (Apr 12 and Apr 13), and No. 25 Penn State Harrisburg (March 8).
Harvell, the Conference Coach of the Year, enters the 2025 season with a 652-313-3 (.675) all-time record. He helped lead the Captains to a regular season and conference tournament championship in the Coast-To-Coast Athletic Conference last season and earned an at-large berth into the NCAA Tournament.
The CNU offense was led by All-Region catcher Lincoln Lubsen and All-Region shortstop Josh Reinhold. Lubsen made an immediate impact on the offense as the team’s leading run producer with 47 RBI and 20 extra-base hits. Reinhold reached base in all but one game during his sophomore season and has only failed to reach base in one of his 83 career games played to this point. The team’s leading hitter last season, Reinhold hit .345 with a team-best 44 runs scored.
Like Lubsen, junior transfer Doc Daniels injected a savvy veteran presence into the CNU lineup and hit .323 in 34 games before suffering a season-ending injury. He ranked second on the team in RBI (37) and home runs (5) despite missing the final seven games of the year. Graduate student Scott Crosson, an ABCA All-Defensive Team selection, and junior Ayden Stuffel led the outfield unit by hitting over .300 on the season while combining for 70 runs scored. Another fifth-year player, designated hitter Zach Dzarnowski, has continued to showcase his tremendous eye at the plate and finished second on the team with a .440 OBP with a team-high 28 walks last year.
Christopher Newport will open the new season on February 14 as the Captains host Messiah University at 2:00 p.m. CNU will also welcome in Mount Union for the weekend with a matchup against the Purple Raiders on Sunday, February 16 at 11:00 a.m.
2025 D3baseball.com/NCBWA Preseason Top 25
Records are final records in 2024, Previous rankings are from the final 2024 D3baseball.com/NCBWA Top 25
The first Top 25 of the regular season will be posted February 28, 2025
School (1st votes) | Rec | Pts | Prev. | |
1 | UW-Whitewater (11) | 45-12 | 600 | 2 |
2 | Salve Regina (5) | 40-10 | 550 | 4 |
3 | Endicott (1) | 47-4 | 549 | 3 |
4 | Misericordia (8) | 44-11 | 526 | 1 |
5 | Denison | 42-8 | 490 | 8 |
6 | Johns Hopkins | 35-11 | 479 | 11 |
7 | Salisbury | 32-12 | 430 | 13 |
8 | Pomona-Pitzer | 37-14 | 417 | 6 |
9 | Lynchburg | 37-17 | 392 | 5 |
10 | East Texas Baptist | 39-10 | 386 | 9 |
11 | Christopher Newport | 29-12 | 381 | 12 |
12 | UW-La Crosse | 36-16 | 325 | 14 |
13 | Baldwin Wallace | 36-10 | 278 | 17 |
14 | Case Western Reserve | 32-9 | 247 | 16 |
15 | Cortland | 31-14-1 | 246 | 24 |
16 | Randolph-Macon | 33-16 | 245 | 10 |
17 | Trinity (Texas) | 32-15 | 164 | 20 |
18 | La Verne | 30-16-1 | 138 | 15 |
19 | Claremont-Mudd-Scripps | 32-15 | 127 | 23 |
20 | Adrian | 33-16 | 125 | 19 |
21 | Rowan | 29-15 | 104 | rv |
22 | Chapman | 22-18 | 62 | – |
23 | Ramapo | 29-16 | 55 | – |
24 | Rhodes | 25-18 | 54 | – |
25 | Penn State-Harrisburg | 35-11 | 53 | 21 |
Others receiving votes: Coe 52, Marietta 49, Arcadia 49, Catholic 42, Babson 41, Keystone 34, N.C. Wesleyan 34, Eastern Connecticut State 32, Spalding 31, Ithaca 23, LaGrange 19, Washinton & Jefferson 19, Centre 18, Transylvania 18, North Central (Ill.) 16, Benedictine 15, Amherst 14, Augustana (Ill.) 13, Methodist 12, Wheaton (Mass.) 12, Whitworth 11, SUNY New Paltz 10, Rochester 10, Shenandoah 10, Willamette 10, Kean 8, Berry 7, Emopry 7. Cal Lutheran 6, Piedmont 6, Tufts 6, Elizabethtown 5, Middlebury 5, Aurora 4, UW-Stevens Point 4, Webster 3, Kalamazoo 2, Mitchell 2, UW-Oshkosh 2, Bethel (Minn.) 1, Penn St.-Behrend 1, St. Olaf 1, TCNJ 1, Texas Lutheran 1.
The D3baseball.com Top 25 is voted on by a panel of 25 Sports Information Directors and media members from across the country, and is published weekly. Full members of NCAA Division III are eligible.